VIDEO: Members of Congress Take the Small Business Challenge

The doors Kevin McCarthy usually walks through lead to a large room in Washington, D.C., where wars have been declared, presidents give State of the Union addresses and the processes of democracy regularly echo from its walls.

But earlier this summer, the Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives got an up-close and personal view of a different type of door—one that opens the garage of a constituent in his California 23rd Congressional District.

McCarthy was just 1 of 12 members of Congress who volunteered to participate in NFIB’s “Small Business Challenge,” a national campaign designed to offer lawmakers an inside perspective of the daily demands America’s entrepreneurs face. He also conducted a roundtable discussion on key issues with more than two dozen other local small-business owners, outlining his efforts to roll back unnecessary federal regulation, repeal President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and reform the U.S. tax code.

Far to the north, Michigan Seventh District Rep. Tim Walberg spent a day of his congressional recess at SeaLandAire Technologies, a Blackman Township firm that specializes in creating sensor and surveillance systems. Hosted by NFIB member and company president David Sparks, Walberg focused his Challenge visit on company operations, where he found evidence of yet another American job-creator wrangling reams of onerous regulations that flow unceasingly from Washington.

“We need some regulations, but we’ve gone way overboard,” Walberg, who serves on the House Education and Workforce, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees, told MLive Media Group, which represents eight Michigan newspapers. “We pile regulations upon regulations. We need a playing field that is level.”

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas with with NFIB member
Dave Jackson at Jackson's Greenhouse and Garden Center.

The NFIB Small Business Challenge will continue throughout the 113th Congress to provide more lawmakers with hands-on opportunities to live a day in the life of a small-business owner. If your representative has taken this important step, please send a note of congratulations. If not, there’s no better time to encourage their participation, because in just a few days, major budget and spending issues will be debated on Capitol Hill.